Disclosed herein are methods directed to additive manufacturing and the use of powder materials such as thermoplastic particles in additive manufacturing processes, and in particular to such methods using laser line scanning large areas for fast 3D molding, as well as corresponding apparatus and computer-readable medium.
Additive manufacturing has been used for many years. Fabricated parts have been produced using various printing techniques (e.g., three-dimensional or 3D printing techniques). For example, sheeting welding, wire welding, melting in powder beds or powder deposition via laser and electron beam melting, injections using powder, liquid ultra violet curable resins, and fusible thermoplastic filaments have all been used. These techniques have varying degrees of geometric complexity, but generally have few restrictions in comparison to conventional machining Each type of technique has associated with it advantages and disadvantages, particularly with respect to solid state processing, fine grain structures, and mechanical properties.
3D printing technology is the new rapid prototyping (RP). Selective laser sintering (SLS) is one major 3D printing technology for thermoplastics, polymers, synthetic resins and metals. It typically uses a single spot laser to scan the top layer of the powder during the 3D building process. Its productivity is limited by a number of engineering challenges such as: data rate, scanning speed, resolution, size and the like. It is further limited by technology challenges such as the balance of energy density and power density. It is common that SLS for metal can reach a few thousand watts. However, the maximum power for a thermoplastic SLS machine is around a few hundred watts.